Onward and Upward

Monday night snuck up on us; it was tryout night for Upward. We've never done Upward before, but we felt Little Man needed to try something other than baseball (he's doing basketball) and Sweet Pea, for the first time in her life, showed interest in doing something (she's doing cheerleading).

Mom called in a panic and told me what was up, so I hurried up there to join in (fortunately, all of this happens at their after-school care location). When I got there, Little Man was bouncing off the walls; he was incredibly excited. He couldn't stop grinning throughout the process. What got me though was Sweet Pea. She has spent her life being totally uninvolved (and in fact tried to back out right before tryouts - her mom nixed that), so this is her first time to do anything like this. I looked over while she was trying on uniforms; her eyes were dancing. That alone made this process worth it to me.

Arrgh!

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday. I'm in a training class (so no office life for me!) for a few days.

Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow (Saturday) is International Talk Like a Pirate Day; do your part to spread the spread the skull and crossbones love, maties!

Noticing things

I took Little Man to the local high school football game Friday night. It was then I realized how much he's starting to grow up.

He had purchased some spirit tattoos and had them on his face. As we were walking up to the stadium, the visiting team's cheerleaders walked by. I pointed out who they were; his eyes got wide and his hands shot to his face. "You don't think they saw my stickers, do you?" After all, he'd hate to lose his shot at them because he roots for the other team ...

Later in the game the home team made a big play. When everybody roared, he looked at me and said "What happened? I was watching the cheerleaders."

This and that

What a day.

While Mom worked late, I got the kids, and then bravely (stupidly?) headed to the grocery store. It went about as well as could be expected, which had my fuse rather short by the time we got home.

At that time, I had to check progress reports on the older two kids. My first thought was "Why can't they talk in English instead of telling me the grade in rote base something." I then read Little Man's report from his teacher, who said "What can I say? He's an outstanding student and a very sweet and well-mannered boy." OK, that helped my mood some.

Dinner was ready about the time Mom walked in; good timing. I snuck in on Sweet Pea a little later, seeing her literally lick her plate. Right after that, Lil Bit was scarfing down her food. Guess daddy's dinner was OK.

We ended with Lil Bit bouncing off the walls in some sort of free-form patter.

"I'm a silly monkey face - BLEH!"

"I'm gonna mess you up!"

"Abba Gabba Hey is coming on (OK, there may have been a bit of a Ramones influence in there as I helped her learn the name of the show)!"

"Boom shakalaka BOOM!"

They ain't heavy ...

I've really been impressed with Little Man lately. He seems to be showing a new level of responsibility and concerns for others' feelings, and that especially reaches to his sisters. Of course, his big sister continues to blow him off completely, but he's still doing what he can (and there are times when I can tell she notices).

It's really taken off with Lil Bit. She loves having the attention of her big brother and he likes having someone appreciate his efforts, so they really feed off each other (sometimes to their parents' breaking point). He'll sit with her and play or watch TV (her shows) and try to include her in what he does, when he can. Is he perfect? Nope. Case in point; his mom told him to keep an eye on his sister while she did something - next thing you know he's wandered off and she's climbing the ladder to the attic. Still, for someone his age, he takes care of her remarkably well. And there's no doubt that she loves it.

Happy long weekend!

Hope y'all are having fun doing ... well, hopefully, not much of anything.

We got back from Southern Miss' beatdown of Alcorn State very late last night. We had good food at our tailgate, a good mixture of old and new friends, and the kids had fun too. Little Man LOVES to go down; he puts on his football uniform and he and his friends play ball for hours. Lil Bit got to run around, laugh and play with one of her buddies. Sweet Pea is not interested in all of this, but had to go anyway, and ended up having a lot of fun too (although she won't admit it). They all passed out in the van on the way home (not too long after we left too), which made for a quiet trip back.

Now if we could only get them to take a nap today ...

Drive-by posting

Things have been hectic and I haven't had time to get on here, but thought I'd do an update. My MIL had her MRI done, but because of some confusion between the two doctors involved, we still don't have results. We're trying to get some stuff worked out with Sweet Pea as well; we'll see where that goes. Plus both of the older kids are starting to get the bug to get involved with things, so we're trying to juggle all of that as well and see what we can pull off and what we can manage.

Lil Bit had some issues at the new daycare, primarily with someone she called the "scary boy." I think he's been pulled out though, so hopefully things will get better. She's been in a better mood the last couple of days when we dropped her off, so hopefully that's a good sign.

So, who's ready for a long weekend?